Wednesday, September 17, 2014

THE SYNOD ON THE FAMILY, FROM WHAT I'M HEARING NOT TOO MUCH IS GOING TO CHANGE OTHER THAN WHAT I'VE BEEN SAYING ALL ALONG!

Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Pope Francis closest advisers has said there will be no contradiction between what is traditionally taught about the Sacrament of Marriage and its permanence and those who are divorced and remarried. They won't be allowed to receive Holy Communion.

He did say, though, that the annulment procedures will be looked at and perhaps streamlined. I don't know of any priest or bishop in the world that would be heartbroken about that. And we need to really listen to the spouses' testimony as theirs is firsthand.

Now Cardinal Pell is saying the same thing and going further at that! No change and he wants things even clearer and he's very close to Pope Francis and I presume a part of the real curia or inner circle of cardinals advising Pope Francis.

This is what he says:

By Francis X. Rocca

Catholic News Service
September 17, 2014

VATICAN CITY — In a book coming out just before October’s
extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family, Cardinal George Pell rules
out proposed changes to church practice that would allow divorced and
civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion.

“Doctrine and pastoral practice cannot be contradictory,” writes
Cardinal Pell, a former archbishop of Sydney who now serves as prefect
of the Secretariat for the Economy. “One cannot maintain the
indissolubility of marriage by allowing the ‘remarried’ to receive
Communion.”

The cardinal calls for a clear restatement of traditional teaching,
to avoid the sort of widespread protests that greeted Pope Paul VI’s
affirmation of Catholic teaching against contraception in 1968.

“The sooner the wounded, the lukewarm, and the outsiders realize that
substantial doctrinal and pastoral changes are impossible, the more the
hostile disappointment (which must follow the reassertion of doctrine)
will be anticipated and dissipated,” writes the cardinal, who will
participate in the synod.

The eligibility of divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to
receive Communion is bound to be a major topic of discussion, inside and
outside the synod hall, during the Oct. 5-19 gathering. According to
church teaching, Catholics who remarry civilly without an annulment may
receive Communion only if they abstain from sexual relations, living
with their new partners “as brother and sister.”

Pope Francis has said the predicament of such Catholics exemplifies a
general need for mercy in the church today. In February, at the pope’s
invitation, German Cardinal Walter Kasper addressed the world’s
cardinals at the Vatican and argued for allowing some Catholics in that
predicament to receive Communion.

Cardinal Pell’s statement appears as the foreword to “The Gospel of
the Family,” a book-length response to Cardinal Kasper’s proposal that
Ignatius Press will publish Oct. 1. Cardinal Kasper’s address, published
by Paulist Press, has the same title.

But focusing on the question of Communion for the divorced and
civilly remarried, he suggests, is a “counterproductive and futile
search for short-term consolations.”

“Healthy communities do not spend most of their energies on
peripheral issues and, unfortunately, the number of divorced and
remarried Catholics who feel they should be allowed to receive holy
Communion is very small indeed,” the cardinal writes.

“The issue is seen by both friends and foes of the Catholic tradition
as a symbol — a prize in the clash between what remains of Christendom
in Europe and an aggressive neo-paganism. Every opponent of Christianity
wants the church to capitulate on this issue,” the cardinal writes.

Cardinal Pell acknowledges that the virtue of mercy, whose importance
both Pope Francis and Cardinal Kasper have underscored in this
connection, “is central when we are talking about marriage and
sexuality, forgiveness and holy Communion.”

But the cardinal also emphasizes the “essential links between mercy and fidelity, between truth and grace.”

“Jesus did not condemn the adulterous woman who was threatened with
death by stoning, but he did not tell her to keep up her good work, to
continue unchanged in her ways,” the cardinal writes. “He told her to
sin no more.”

I just do not see how the annulment process can work. If about 50% of all marriages are dissolved by secular courts and most divorced remarry, the workload will be way too much for the number of experts available to judge nullity cases.

Overwhelmed by the workload, at the end, Kasper's position will prevail by default. As a result, the Church will loose credibility no matter what happens. Easy "Catholic divorce" discredits the Truth of the sacrament of marriage and in a generation or two ultimately nothing will remain Catholic. Historians will mark the October Synod in 2014 as the end of Reformation that formally commenced the 16th century. (There is something about the month of October, no?)

Fr. McDonald, is Card Kasper now saying that the Pope agrees with him?

"None of my brother cardinals has ever spoken with me," the cardinal (Kasper) said. "I, on the other hand, have spoken twice with the Holy Father. I arranged everything with him. He was in agreement. What can a cardinal do but stand with the pope? I am not the target, the target is another."

Asked if the target was Pope Francis, the cardinal replied: "Probably yes."

I can see why the Holy Father would be irritated. I would be most irritated by Cardinal Casper and his use of language to align himself with the Pope and all the others opposed to the pope, even if true.

The pope clearly has an affinity for Cardinal Casper's position. If adopted will there be a schism amongst the cardinals and the faithful?

these things have happened in the Church and there were certainly those who disagreed with Pope Paul VI on a number of areas.

Ultimately the Church continues and is always to be found in her fullness with the pope. No pope, no full communion.

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social network are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my bishop or the Diocese of Savannah.” Comments that I post do not necessarily reflect my views or the views of the Bishop of the Diocese of Savannah.
I am a priest of the Diocese of Savannah ordained in 1980 at the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist. I am currently the pastor of Saint Anne Church in Richmond Hill, Georgia. I am the former Director of Vocations from 1986 to 1998 and former Director of Liturgy and Diocesan Master of Ceremonies from 1985 to 1991.